Assessment of agricultural damages resulting from flood occurrence using HEC-RAS and Arc View

Subject Areas : environmental management

Hossein Hekmatifar ¹ , Mehrdad Nazariha ² , Saeed Givechi ³

1 - Water Resources Institute
2 - Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran
3 - Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran

Received: 2007-08-21 Accepted : 2007-10-16 Published : 2009-12-22

Keywords: Arc View, HEC-RAS, flood, structural measures, agricultural damage assessment, Qarasoo River,

Abstract :

The selection of a proper measure for flood control depends initially on the technical aspects of flood and floodplain, and then on economic aspects. Since in the cost-benefit analysis of flood control plans, flood mitigation is one of the most important benefits, it is necessary to refine flood damage assessment measures. In this research study, the agricultural damages to Qarasoo floodplain have been assessed for different flood control plans. The study is done on a length of 29.5 kilometers on both sides of the river. The flood control plans which are studied here are: modifying the river’s bed, dredging the river’s bed, and a combination of the two. These are simulated using HEC-RAS and ARC VIEW software and the damage related to each plan is assessed. The results show that there is not a significant difference between dredging on the one hand and the combination of modifying and dredging plans on the other hand, although the difference was expected to be great. This could be due to the improper selection of a new path in the modifying plan.